


Rewrite

by LeFay_Strent



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, First Meetings, Humor, M/M, Mild Cursing, Prinxiety - Freeform, a gravity-challenged prince, a wise emo, boys being too cute, hypothetical dragons, squirrels with high standards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 22:23:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16752577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeFay_Strent/pseuds/LeFay_Strent
Summary: Contemplating your life works best when lying down, and the urge may strike at any moment. It isn’t Roman’s fault that the urge struck when he’d been walking down the sidewalk of a university campus that he doesn’t even go to. He isn’t lying here to get attention, really.“Your chin is kinda bleeding,” the man says.Okay, so maybe he did have a little fall.





	Rewrite

“Are you okay?”

           

Roman Prince is most certainly _not_ okay. Lying in the grass with the end of his legs branching out onto the sidewalk path, he does not think he looks the picture of ‘okay-ness’, which makes the stranger’s question redundant. Moot. Unnecessary? One of those words. A word that explains why his words don’t need to be said.

           

A person sprawled out by the sidewalk? Not okay, unless he has been cloud-gazing. Considering the massive trees all around the university campus, and the fact that he is directly under one’s leafy limbs, cloud-gazing is not an option. Squirrel-gazing is a better chance. Sadly, none of the bushy tailed rats have come near him whenever he’s tried to get their attention. Not with coos or clucks of the tongue, like you’d call a dog, but a more conventional approach where he tells them, “Want to come over and talk about nuts?” Or at least, it should be more conventional, in Roman’s mind anyway. Why wouldn’t a squirrel want a person willing to talk and understand the complicated intricacies of nuts?

           

The squirrels that avoid him beg to differ.

           

So here Roman is, lying by the sidewalk, very much not okay. Not because the local squirrels ostracized him, and not because he’d tripped or some such unfortunate mishap. No, he just has a lot on his mind. Contemplating your life works best when lying down, and the urge may strike at any moment. It isn’t Roman’s fault that the urge struck when he’d been walking down the sidewalk of a university campus that he doesn’t even go to. He isn’t lying here to get attention, really. He just isn’t okay and needs to think.

           

“Your chin is kinda bleeding,” the man says.

           

Okay, so maybe he did have a little fall on the concrete that resulted in him rolling over into the grass in denial that he had ever been anything but graceful. And his need to bring purpose to awkward incidents doesn’t help matters, except that maybe they do. If you fall onto the ground and only squirrels are there to witness your lapse in basic motor skills, do your problems make a sound?

           

Roman admits to himself that the impact to his chin may have rattled his brain a bit.

           

“A young lad enters from stage right,” Roman begins. “He finds an addled man lying beside the sidewalk, possibly injured. Why does he stop?”

           

“Becaauuuse anyone would be concerned?” he answers uncertainly.

           

“Previous events in the act would prove you wrong. Twenty seven people have passed since the man has lain here.” Not that he’s been waiting for someone to see if he was okay.

           

“Because that’s what ‘ _nice’_ people do then?”

           

“Ah, but is our protagonist a ‘ _nice’_ people?”

           

“He likes to think so.”

           

That makes Roman finally look up at the man. Like he thought, he really is young in that fresh-out-of-high school way (though for all he knew, he could really be a senior here). He has thick dark hair that hangs messily over his dark-hued eyes that speak of interest and sleepless nights. And his dark baggy clothes might double for pajamas.

           

“An optimist cloaked in darkness?” Roman asks, eyeing him up and down. He catches the implication and crosses his arms over his chest.

           

“Maybe sometimes.”

           

“An air of mystery too,” he notes, finally sitting up. “Overused, but never tiring.”

           

“Depends on who you ask.”

           

He nods. “Of course. So let me ask you, Dark Master. What sets you out on your mysterious journey?”

           

The man glances around the campus, waving his hand in a direction past the courtyard fountain and towards a great unknown (to Roman anyway). “Not mysterious, really. Just on my way to get food.”

           

“No, you’ve forgotten your lines,” he corrects him. The Dark Master doesn’t interrupt, but raises a brow. “Every character must play their part.”

           

“What if I don’t want to?”

           

Roman waves his hand as if grabbing the comment and throwing it away. “Doesn’t matter if we want to. The script has been written, the cast selected, and the show must go on no matter the tragedy.”

           

“Am I the lead character?”

           

He shrugs. “Everyone’s the lead character of their own script, but they play a minor role in most others.”

           

“Does my script involve food?”

           

“It does, if you have a taste for romance.”

           

“This better not be some _Romeo & Juliet_ shit.”

           

“Not that kind of romance, but it might include it. What I’m talking about is the original romance, the journeying hero sort who slays beasts and rescues those in need.”

           

“Did I rescue you? Does that count?”

           

“That remains to be seen. We’ve yet to reach the final act.”

           

“Gotchya,” the Dark Master says and stands there waiting for the rest. Roman is amazed that he’s still standing there, listening to him. _Participating_ even. It spurs him further.

           

“This is a tale about a knight,” Roman tells him, “only it isn’t.”

           

“Makes sense,” he snorts sarcastically.

           

“There’s also a dragon, and then there’s a princess. The three defining roles.”

           

“I don’t want to be the princess,” he responds automatically. Roman can’t help a twitch of a smile.

           

“Lucky for you, you aren’t. Except, you are unlucky. You’re the dragon.”

           

“If I’m a dragon how is that unlucky? I’m a fucking dragon.”

           

Roman taps a finger against his lips in thought. “No, not like most dragons. You’re not even a normal dragon. More like a wyvern.”

           

His eyes narrow and Roman likes to think it’s not because he thinks he’s crazy. “Those…don’t have arms, right?”

           

“They have wings, which are far better. Except you’re the one trapped in a tall tower. Not the princess.”

           

“Who put me in a tower?”

           

“Society.”

           

“I’ll eat them,” the Dark Master vows.

           

Roman is taken aback by his emphatic promise to consume other life forms. By this point, he would have expected him to write him off and walk away. Thrilled that he is still playing along, Roman eagerly leans forward and talks more with his hands. “But you can’t. You’re stuck. And the princess outside warns everyone who comes near to stay away.”

           

“Why is she doing that? I’ll eat her too.”

           

“A nice thought, but again, you’re stuck. She’s warning everyone away because you’re a wyvern, which isn’t even a proper dragon. So how can a less-than dragon ever hope to fall into the good graces of a human society?”

           

“Why do I need to?” An interesting question he poses, but alas, there is no changing the answer.

           

“It is your role in the play, and play the role you must. And if a less-than dragon cannot appease the human masses by itself, it needs someone else to convince them. A knight. You, the wyvern, waits for the one knight who doesn’t listen to the princess and sees that you can be saved instead of feared.”

           

“Does it have to be a knight? Why can’t I just save myself?”

           

“Because that’s the way the script was written.”

           

“Then rewrite the script.”

           

Roman stares up at him, sees the determination flaring in his dark eyes, and he finds his mouth hanging open slightly. He attempts speech, but the Dark Master beats him to it.

           

“It’s a stupid script anyway. Why should I wait around for some knight to come around and think I’m worth saving? And screw the princess. I don’t need her help either. I can break out of the tower and find some other people to chill with. Like another wyvern. Or an actual dragon. Or a T-rex. I don’t need society if society doesn’t need me. I’ll chill with other reptiles.”

           

Roman, pushing through his gob smacked thoughts, can only mutter, “Find another wyvern?”

           

He shrugs. “Or a T-rex. Doesn’t matter to me.”

           

Rewrite the script and find someone yourself, maybe not quite like yourself, but with their own eccentricities. In that regard, Roman wouldn’t have to change to meet anyone else’s expectations. He just had to find people who accepted him regardless of if they understood him.

           

Roman smiles. “You have a funny way of saying to take fate into your own hands.”

           

“Well, you have a funny way of talking too, so I guess we’re even.”

           

Roman smiles wider. Sitting there, crossed-legged in the grass with a scraped chin, he looks up at the man and asks, “Want to get some lunch together?”

           

He grins back. “Thought you’d never ask.”

**Author's Note:**

> Prinxiety where they go from enemies to lovers is great and all, but I wanted to show a side to them where they can just click when they first meet. Roman's always been told he's too eccentric, too strange, too showy, just too much in general. So he felt he'd never find someone to accept him as he is, which he thought meant he needed to change and conform, but he didn't want to lose himself just because he was lonely. And here he finds Virgil who shakes up the narrative, and you can bet that Roman will be super excited throughout lunch (nay, for WEEKS to come) because Virgil isn't turned off by his weirdness and in fact embraces him.


End file.
